Policy impacts on people with disabilities are overwhelmingly an afterthought for corporate media, though it’s a community anyone can join... more

Federal workers, presumed to be easy targets, are also on the front lines of the fightback against the Trump/Musk federal... more

Fossil fuel corporations' lawsuits against those who challenge their destruction take aim at our ability to speak out about anything.

Corporate media can't bring themselves to call Trump's illegal, inhumane plan what it is: ethnic cleansing.

Corporate news media presented a campaign openly defined as uninterested in truth or humanity as a totally valid, “grassroots” perspective.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens made an overt case for US military intervention to topple Venezuela’s government.

The Trump campaign against transgender people lands in an elite media climate in which trans lives have long been deemed... more

The increasing influence of the super rich on the politics and policy we all have to live with is an... more

Immigration itself is now not a human rights story, or even an economic one, but yet another story about “their”... more

Many are calling out insurance companies that take folks’ money, but then hinder their ability to come out from under... more

How different is Thomas Friedman's insistence that China "let in more Taylor Swifts" from US media coverage of China and... more

Corporate news media, tasked primarily with enriching the rich and shoring up entrenched institutions, will not do the liberatory, illuminating... more

This is the time of year when we take a listen back to some of the conversations from the past... more

Does banning TokTok threaten First Amendment freedoms? A judge says the government “acted solely to protect that freedom from a... more

While not the first to ask us to see the assault on Palestinians as genocide, Amnesty’s report offers an opening... more

When a corporate behemoth like Amazon buys one of the country’s national newspapers, it’s a conflict writ large as can... more

A federal jury has just found military contractor CACI responsible for its part in Abu Ghraib abuse, in a ruling... more

Legal sports gambling is the apple of the eye of many corporate and private state actors—but how does it affect... more

If we're to believe the chest-thumping, high on Trump's agenda will be the enforced criminalization of immigration.

We talk about what just happened, and corporate media’s role in it, with Julie Hollar, senior analyst at the media... more

News media start with the premise of immigration itself as a “crisis,” with the only debate around how to "stem"... more

Trump’s “Big Lie” attorneys are not so much returning to the field, but actually never left.

Defending Rights & Dissent has started a project called the Gaza First Amendment Alert, which is going to come out... more

A new book doesn’t just illuminate the thicket of effects of systemic racism as it affects where people live; it... more

The more a strike affects the economy, i.e., the more effective it is, the harder corporate media try to smear... more

Why are events we pay insurance for a "crisis" for the industry we pay it to? The unceasing effects of... more

Musk’s Twitter is keeping certain information out of the public view—information that just happens to damage the presidential ticket he... more

As every day brings news of new carnage, US citizens have a duty not to look away, given our government’s... more

Jen Senko’s film and the book based on it are an effort to engage the effects of that yelling, punching... more

Why do the press corps need a constitutional amendment to protect their ability to speak if all they’re going to... more

A people-centered press corps would spell out the meaning of economic “indicators” in relation to where we want to go... more

Kroger is currently raising the prices of things like eggs and milk above inflation rates, simply because they can get... more

More than 20 years after the New York Times was catastrophically wrong on the Iraq War, the paper cannot forgive... more

How do we acknowledge the fact that many people’s opinions are shaped by messages that are created and paid for... more

The crickets you’re hearing about efforts to eviscerate the right to protest the impacts of climate disruption? That’s all intentional.

Does the company that "corners the market" do so because people simply prefer what they sell? The anti-monopoly ruling against... more

The right wing has gotten much more overt about their intention to defeat the prospect of multiracial democracy, as demonstrated... more

If voting were made easier, Donald Trump said, "You'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."

Years from now, we’ll hear about how everyone saw the nightmare and everyone opposed it. But history is now, and... more

At some point, we will get tired of hearing news reports on "record heat"—because "heat" will have stopped meaning what... more

Algorithms create an environment where organizations enact rules for workers’ behavior, reward and sanction them based on that, but never... more

The cynical maneuvers of Medicare Advantage don’t lead to good health outcomes, but they serve the real goal: netting private... more

This week on CounterSpin: Donald Trump told a Las Vegas crowd earlier this month that, if elected, the “first thing”... more

Will elite news media now suggest we just go back to considering the Supreme Court a neutral body, deserving of... more

It is a moment to examine the right-wing media that have fomented this scary nonsense, but also to look to... more

Some courts are indulging the bizarre notion that regulation should be illegal, essentially, because it forces companies to say stuff... more

The violent attacks on college students and faculty across the country showcase the abandonment by many educational institutions of their... more

The 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump through skullduggery--but many people who vote do believe that.

US press are so used to driving the narrative they don’t know what to do except yell “shut up shut... more

Different media, telling different stories, can change our understanding of our past, our present and our future.

Colleges’ official responses to protests are gutting the notion that elite higher education entails respect for the free expression of... more

The long-fought effort to get legal acknowledgement of the abuse of Iraqi detainees in the Iraq War is coming to... more

What needs to change in Haiti includes Western media presentations that ignore or erase even recent history.

Corporate profit margins are at a level not seen since the 1950s, as abject greed was whistled past by... more

A senior UN human rights official says there is a "plausible" case that Israel is using starvation as a weapon... more

Elite media still can’t quite connect images of floods or fires to the triumphant shareholder meetings of the fossil fuel... more

Industry still argues that that cellphone isn't really "yours," in the sense that you can't fix it if it breaks.

Donald Trump could declare himself above the law—and that’s just been enabled by a recent Supreme Court ruling.

If we don’t ask different questions about what we need from journalism, we will arrive at the same old unsatisfactory... more

As the US falls more out of step with the world, many in the US press seem divorced from the... more

Acheson v. Laufer is another example of “weaponizing the courts to dismantle labor protections, housing rights and health guidelines.”

The rapid rise in inequality over recent decades should have generated deep alarm in news media. But there’s little sign... more

The same people who earn wages also buy groceries, and pretending that we’re pitted against one another is not just... more

What if there isn’t a "border crisis" so much as an absence of historical understanding, of empathy, of community resourcing?

The Washington Post sought to preempt DC voters by getting rid of Mayor Vincent Gray before he stood for reelection.

Communities are hard at work reimagining public safety without punitive policing. There’s new work on those possibilities.

How does the New York Times’ assertion that “what Israel is fighting to defend is a society that values human... more

Elite reporters are so removed from daily reality that they assume a raise in wages means fast food employees... more

Corporate media’s single-minded obsession with inflation has left the public with an objectively inaccurate view of the economy.

US journalists invoke the First Amendment a lot, but not so much when it extends to regular folks saying NO... more

CounterSpin is thankful to all the activists, researchers, reporters and advocates who appear on the show to help us see... more

Powerful institutions, including the media, combine a selective understanding of free expression with a vehement desire to enforce it.

We can't have a public conversation about how fossil fuels cause climate disruption in a corporate media moneyed by fossil... more

The devastation of Gaza, and the vehement efforts to silence anyone who wants to challenge it, is the story for... more

Too many outlets seem to have trouble shaking the framing of abortion as a "controversy," or as posing problems for... more

Argentina's new president questions the death toll of the country's military dictatorship and calls climate change a “lie of... more

Cable news coverage of victims, war crimes and context show a double standard when it comes to US allies versus... more

The question is whether the Court’s conservative majority can use its special brand of backwards-looking to determine this country’s future.

The Republican-held House could push to ban TikTok completely, on the grounds that it allows too much criticism of Israel.

Shouldn't the press corps be actively involved in informing us about the person third in line for the presidency?

“The newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the... more

Paxlovid's "transition" to the commercial market entails hiking the cost of the treatment to 100 times the cost of... more

The primary food aid program, SNAP, while the constant target of the racist, drown-government-in-the-bathtub crowd, keeps on keeping on.

This week on CounterSpin:  In the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas and the ensuing bombing campaign from... more

Corporate media tell us to be mad at the rando taking toilet paper from Walgreens, but not the executive who’s... more

The story is mostly about the political fortunes of an individual; the huge numbers of less powerful people impacted are,... more

An unprecedented labor action is underway as thousands of Midwest autoworkers working for the Big 3 went on strike at... more

September 11, 2001, is the exemplar of a past that isn’t dead, or even past, and for no one more... more

Media have an active disinterest in telling the story of the Korean peninsula in anything other than static, cartoonish terms.

It does no disservice to the education battles of the current day to connect them to previous battles and conversations.

The ADA demands all kinds of attention, every day—not a once a year pat on the back about "how far... more

It is vital that news readers become acquainted with the tropes that dominate coverage of the Israeli occupation.

Unlike elite media’s misty memories, the lawsuit is a stubborn indication that those responsible for Abu Ghraib haven't been called... more

Facial recognition, a technology that has been proven wrong, has been deemed harmful, in principle and in practice, for years... more

Elite media are deeply accustomed to calling any union action a harm, and any company acknowledgment of workers’ value a... more

"When you get rid of local coverage, what you also get rid of is the watchdog that is so important....... more

Advocates have long declared that Biden’s asylum restrictions are not just harmful but unlawful. And a federal judge has just... more

"Not a lot of people would understand that Black women are often killed by the police when they actually ask... more

Say Her Name is about adding Black women to our understanding of police violence—to help make our response more meaningful... more

Live, single-candidate town halls with strictly friendly audiences are one of the worst ways to help the public make an... more

White supremacy and economic policy are completely different stories for the press, but not for the people.

In the wake of a historically progressive response to an economic downturn, corporate media have been intently focused on the... more

There is no way to fight climate disruption without fighting climate disrupters.

The impacts of the Dobbs ruling are still reverberating, as is the organized pushback that we can learn about and... more

When Daniel Ellsberg died, media burnished their own reputation as truth-tellers while somehow dishonoring the practice of truth-telling.

Western outlets will stop at no length to defend Washington’s agenda, even if that means reheating debunked narratives.

Narrative is an important tool for folks looking to change the world for the better, in part by changing the... more

What will the legalization, and profitizing, of marijuana mean for the people and communities most harmed by its criminalization?

Asian-American students are being used as the face of attempts to eliminate affirmative action or race-consciousness in college admissions.

Many corporate news reporters seem unable to present a labor action as other than an unwonted interruption of a natural... more

Much of the corporate press refrained from framing Neely as a victim, and far-right media outlets went even further to... more

Some officials fully intend to treat anyone who stands in opposition to whatever they decide they want to do as... more

Two New York Times pieces may represent a troubling narrative shift in the newspaper of record's Brazil coverage.

Whether the Supreme Court gets away with its rejection of ethics depends in part on journalists' willingness to stick with... more

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont proposed on February 2 to purchase and forgive roughly $2 billion in medical debt owed by... more

Republican brinkmanship could devastate millions of people—along with the harm to public understanding of what's actually going on.

Hate-fueled and hate-fueling media have political and historical impacts—and interpersonal, familial ones as well.

A Texas judge revoking FDA approval of mifepristone may be a "confusing legal battle" for media--but for most people, it's... more

Tax season leads some of us to ponder what we get in return for our resources—streets and stop signs, to... more

The Wall Street Journal (2/26/23) broke the news that classified documents show the US Energy Department believes Covid emerged from... more

Crushing Starbucks workers' attempts to work together is against the law—but it's not the sort of crime elite media seem... more

Do Black and brown people have a right to move freely in the world? The Ciudad Juárez fire and what... more

What passes for debate about why we must remain at war with whomever is designated has roots in 2003 worth... more

The corporate press corps seems intent on forcing a vital, important situation into old, tired and harmful frames.

Media interest in historic breakthroughs should extend to the barriers disabled people face in 2023, and how policies could address... more

Jackson, Mississippi, residents who have been harmed many times over are being told that the appropriate response is to take... more

Our past has not been fully grappled with or understood, and that has everything to do with what’s happening now.

Saying how hard you want to be on "dealers" is really an admission of a failure to address a public... more

What could be happening if Biden's long-languishing nomination of public interest advocate Gigi Sohn were put through?

Electric utilities have disconnected US households more than 4 million times since the beginning of Covid, preceding the Ukraine War.

Engaging with posts on social media is a meaningful way of supporting journalism organizations you are sympathetic to.

The message from many politicians and their media amplifiers: Cheating on taxes is a luxury only the rich can, or... more

"The same forces that were at play in the '60s to remove Lumumba are at play today in terms of... more

Lumumba's assassination, judging by attention, has no lessons for US citizens or the press corps about the past, the present... more

Another company silently snuck a forced arbitration clause into its terms of service—and that company is the New York Times.

The public still look to news media to give them accurate, independently sourced and documented information to help them make... more

There's an unarticulated underpinning to elite media conversation that as a consumer, you don't have anything called a "right."

CounterSpin is thankful to every activist, researcher, reporter and advocate who appeared on the show, of whom this is just... more

The Very Smart People will tell us that what we really ought to do, what the intelligent people would do,... more

Those who want to eliminate the Indian Child Welfare Act are opposed by the reality that made the Act necessary... more

The New York Times parrots the implausible suggestion that cities cracking down on unsheltered people constitutes efforts to help them.

The struggle for pay and dignity at the University of California is part of a bigger fight about whether educators... more

The African continent as a playing field for white people to test their theories, extract resources and stage proxy wars... more

Before Bankman-Fried’s transition from financial genius to possible financial criminal, he received little scrutiny in the media.

It's hard not to imagine the use that a differently focused press corps might make of Brazil's change of direction.

For the Western press, the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party offered a number of signals which—if read... more

The affordable housing crisis is not just capitalism run amok, because that doesn't happen without government involvement.

US news media ignore the role US intervention has played throughout Haitian history in order to push for the same... more

"The culture of imprisonment tells a deeper story about America. We're not going to get it if we don't go... more

Overt, proud-of-it bias has shaped coverage of Mumia Abu-Jamal's case from the outset, and current mentions suggest little has changed.

Election coverage should be judged not by how reporters "treat" Democrats or Republicans, but about how they inform and engage... more

Janine Jackson interviewed San Francisco State University’s John Logan about Amazon and Starbucks organizing for the October 7, 2022, episode... more

Growing numbers of people have concerns, not just about uncritical US support for Israel, but also about the shutdown of... more

With tens of thousands of workers walking out around the country, the notion that this is somehow not meaningful should... more

Tax giveaways to non–Puerto Ricans mean money not going to Puerto Rico's energy systems, schools, hospitals, housing.

US news media need to not only acknowledge inflicting racist harms, but take seriously the idea of repairing them.

For corporate media, being a paid flack for the police in no way disqualifies you to offer analysis of... more

Please ask CNN to explain why a person who misrepresents the evidence on the causes of crime trends should be... more

News media missed an opportunity to interrogate the media outlets and politicians who repeatedly invoke the white replacement idea.

The film Powerlands covers Indigenous people around the world, and the resource extraction stealing their water, minerals and homelands.

The corporate media narrative on Israel/Palestine makes it hard to make sense of the recent assault by Israeli forces on... more

We have some questions about the US government's claim that this time, they're really bringing stability and security to Central... more

Alex Jones' lawyer says talking about his white supremacism would "distract from the main issues." What are the "main issues"... more

This week on CounterSpin: The crises we face right now in the US—a nominally democratic political process that’s strangled by... more

There's a way to tell the story of heat waves that connects to policy and planning, but that centers human... more

This week on CounterSpin: The internet has changed the way we communicate, access information and even organize, which means concerns... more

This week on CounterSpin: The Supreme Court’s reversal on abortion rights is so actually and potentially devastating that it’s hard... more

"That kind of legal philosophy could seriously endanger not just the environment, but the ability of Congress to pass all... more

A film that offers an entirely uncritical and glowing portrait of the UAE ought to make PBS take a closer... more

A Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts has gutted multiple legally and societally established precedents.

This week on CounterSpin: Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion on Kennedy v. Bremerton that “the... more

It's hard to parse corporate media coverage of Biden's Saudi visit, because that coverage obscures rather than illuminates what's going... more

It's 40 years since Vincent Chin's murder, with a depressingly resonant context of anti-Asian hatred and scapegoating,

Modest legal steps that would go unnoticed in most countries are—in Nicaragua’s case—clear evidence that it is “inching toward dictatorship.”

US officials have free rein to continue inflicting collective punishment on Venezuelans without challenge or scrutiny.

On Biden’s and Trump’s favorable ratings, Gen Xers find themselves mostly in the middle among generations.

There are people and policies, with names, preventing developing countries from accessing life-saving Covid vaccines.

While alternative media are up in arms about the Supreme Court's ruling, corporate news media don't seem to think there's... more

This week on CounterSpin: CBS News‘ website featured a story about the “grim task” of planning funerals for 19 children—shot... more

The Buffalo killer is a white supremacist who believes there's a plot run by Jews to "replace" white people with... more

Elite media are interested in abortion as an issue, but it is not understood as a human right but rather... more

A new website uses critical race theory as a prism to explore the range of threats to multi-racial democracy and... more

"If it bleeds, it leads" journalism lets news outlets look as though they're tracking an important event in real time.

Who pays taxes, how much, and why? We revisit two conversations about tax policy racism and taxing the rich on... more

The Philadelphia Inquirer's "A More Perfect Union" project is aimed at examining racism in US institutions, including media institutions.

This week on CounterSpin: He wanted to go to the Capitol on January 6, Donald Trump tells the Washington Post,... more

Will we keep having a Supreme Court justice declaring himself "one being" with a spouse who declares the 2020 election... more

It's a good time to recall that we had a war in this country in which many people declared that... more

Yemen is not a rhetorical device. It's a country of human beings in crisis.

Economic pressure is presented as a way of avoiding violence. But there's a problem with seeing sanctions as an alternative... more

Is what we call "higher" education an individual investment or a public good? The way news media talk about it... more

Some state-backed journalists must register as “foreign agents” with the US government. But others don't have to.

This week on CounterSpin: Black History Month has always been something of a double-edged sword: It implies that Black history... more

Understanding the Ukraine crisis involves letting go of the storyline in which the US equals benevolent democracy and Russia equals... more

Why has the system broken down? You could say media's reluctance to critically break down systems is itself a system... more

The  spate of new election-meddling laws proposed in Arizona suggests that looking away from Trumpists' "audit" is not the answer.

A judge has approved a debt restructuring deal for Puerto Rico and the deal's architects are saying it means a... more

While corporate media have largely let the water crisis in Flint go, the story isn't over, nor has justice been... more

New York Times coverage of Covid in China, with its casual Nazi analogies, reaches a level of partisan hyperbole on... more

We are a long way from understanding the full meaning of Guantánamo. But we can get the remaining detainees out.